Rash of Youth Suicides Spurs Outrage, Response

Asher Brown, aged 13. Seth Walsh, also 13. Billy Lucas and Justin Aaberg, both 15. And now 18-year-old college student Tyler Clementi, who attended Rutgers University, in Central New Jersey until his Sept. 22 jump from the the George Washington Bridge, which connects Northern New Jersey with New York City. All five killed themselves after suffering anti-gay harassment. Aaberg, Brown, Lucas, and Walsh had endured bullying at school for years; Clementi’s roommate secretly recorded him having a sexual encounter with another man, and then posted the images online.

GLBT equality groups responded with outrage, citing not only Clementi’s suicide, but also those of the others. "Today, as we heard news of the fourth apparent teenage suicide in recent weeks, following antigay bullying and harassment, we felt overwhelming grief and anger," a statement from Lambda Legal Deputy Legal Director Hayley Gorenberg read. The statement was emailed to recipients on Sept. 29.

"Losing one young person because of bigotry and hate is too much," Gorenberg’s statement continued, "but two, three, four? Each person and story is unique and tragic, but taken together, they deliver a powerful and painful message: We must act urgently and do everything in our power to end the prejudice and protect our youth.

"Our hearts and sympathies are with the families and loved ones of the four young people who took their lives," added Gorenberg. "Seth Walsh, 13 years old, of Tehachapi CA, who hanged himself; Billy Lucas, 15, of Greensburg, Indiana, who also hanged himself; Asher Brown, 13, of Houston, who shot himself in the head; and Tyler Clementi, a college freshman in New Jersey who apparently jumped off the George Washington Bridge after classmates allegedly violated his privacy and web cast live images of him in a sexual encounter.

"But sympathy is not enough--we all have a responsibility to take action, and to keep working until all young people are safe and respected, no matter what their sexual orientation or gender identity," Gorenberg added. "We must push for laws on the federal level and in every state that prohibit bullying and discrimination. We must hold people accountable, and use the courts when necessary. And most importantly, we must love and teach all our children to be their best selves and to respect and support others to do the same."

Garden State Equality chair Steve Goldstein called Clementi’s suicide "one of the most unconscionable, hate-related deaths of a student in the history of the State of New Jersey." Goldstein went on to state, "There are no words sufficient to express our range of feelings today. We are outraged at the perpetrators. We are heartbroken over the tragic loss of a young man who, by all accounts, was brilliant, talented and kind. And we are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport."

"Roommate asked for the room till midnight," a Sept. 19 tweet from Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, read. "I went into molly’s [sic] room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

The images captured by Ravi’s web cam were sent out for all to see. Ravi later attempted to spy on Clementi once again, according to a Sept. 29 New York Times article. A Sept. 21 message from Ravi invited readers to tune in once more: "I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12," Ravi sent out. "Yes, it’s happening again."

Whether Ravi intended the violation of Clementi’s privacy as an act of anti-gay harassment or simply as a prank is beside the point to those who see the situation as evidence that GLBT youth continue to face demeaning treatment at the hands of their peers. ""Had he been in bed with a woman, this would not have happened," Lauren Felton, a fellow student at Rutgers, told the media in a Sept. 30 Associated Press article. "He wouldn’t have been outed via an online broadcast and his privacy would have been respected and he might still have his life."

"The notion that video of Tyler doing what he was doing can be considered a spectacle is just heinous," student Jordan Gochman said. "It’s intolerant, it’s upsetting, it makes it seem that being gay is something that is wrong and can be considered laughable."

Davi and another student, Molly Wei, both face charges related to invading Clementi’s privacy. Moreover, "Collecting or viewing sexual images without consent is a fourth-degree crime. Transmitting them is a third-degree crime with a maximum prison term of five years," the AP article noted.

Nationally, children as young as 11 have committed suicide in recent years, after having endured relentless bullying at school. The bullying often takes the form of anti-gay taunts and harassment, even when the children being bullied are not gay. Groups such as the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) seek to provide educational materials in order to promote a safe learning environment in the schools, but some schools have policies in place that deny students classroom learning about human sexual diversity.

In two separate incidents in different parts of the country, two youths, both 15 years old, hanged themselves after enduring anti-gay bullying at school. A news anchor at a CBS affiliate WCCO in Anoka, Minnesota, reported on Sept. 13 on the hanging death of 15-year old Justin Aaberg, a student in the Anoka-Hennepin school district in Minnesota, who had come out as gay two years earlier and endured anti-gay harassment at school. The anchor said that there had been "a record number of suicides" in the school district, "mostly among gay students." The article cited a teacher--who commented anonymously for fear of reprisal--who said that he thought three of the students who had killed themselves were struggling with their sexuality.

"I actually thought he had the perfect life," said Aaberg’s mother, Tammy Aaberg, who discovered her son’s dead body on July 9. "I thought out of anybody I knew that he had the perfect life. But I guess he didn’t think so." The article said that Tammy Aaberg had become an advocate of changing the school system’s policy on sex ed, which states that, "Teaching about sexual orientation is not a part of the District adopted curriculum; rather, such matters are best addressed within individual family homes, churches, or community organizations."

Bill Blazak, 2010-09-30 17:59:44

Yes, fine, rage, rage, rage. That’s mostly what we do - a lot of outrage and very little substantive solutions. What solutions are offered usually involve shunting responsibility on others: more laws, more prisons, more prosecutions of people who don’t like us. Please. That is the whine of the impotent. Better to take some of the less bellicose suggestions such as those the poster above suggests: run for school board, volunteer youth counseling - that sort of thing. But expecting the government to act like a giant elementary school teacher is usually the final ejaculation of pointless outrage. Another thing we could do is to grow up. Enough of paradigms like Edge which is nothing but outrage and beefcake. Until the rest of humanity sees us as complete humans and not just hedonists interested in nothing but what’s attached to the end of our penises, we’re going to continue to be despised. We want gay marriage, but then we parade around like sex crazed little satyrs every time the media has a camera on us. Edge could start by exploring more news that just left wing whining and express something more of our culture than half naked party boys. That kind of infantile shallowness is one of our worst PR problems.

Craig Balaun, 2010-09-30 22:37:36

Unfortunately these kinds of incidences are not as rare as many think. Nor do they occur in a vacuum. The insidious nature of homophobia begins softly, quietly, and deftly- stealthily and purposely it is used in very subtle yet devastating ways. Gay marriage masks an antiquated, sometimes highly dysfunctional and broken court system here in Vermont. I brought a man to court here in Vermont. During a deposition, his lawyer took me, suddenly and inexplicably, outside the purview of the court reporter, telling the girl to "shut the machine down," and dragged me into a small private room in her office building, made me sit in a chair, and demanded I say I had a ’sexual dysfunction.’ (a.k.a. ’you’re a homosexual!’) The look on her face, her physiognomy- can only be described as that of sangfroid. Her posture, her outlandish and seemingly possessed demeanor, her body convulsing with tremors- having broke through that wall of moral decency there was no turning back. As the act revealed its own inimitable, distinctive form of uncontrollable behavior I was yet again, once more caught in a moment of terror that I will never in my life ever be able to erase from my mind. What passes for justice here, and elsewhere, is immoral justice and undermines our ability to create laws that truly change and prevent homophobic behavior that can lead to tragedy. The office of an attorney and a courtroom, our computers and our iPods may bristle with electronic applications, amplifiers and digital recording devices that bear witness, but [they] don’t hear us. So much technology these days that we are lulled into a complacency thinking homophobia is overt and loud and obvious-that it can be caught on tape for all to see. Look carefully though and you too will find it lurking, hiding, seething, hidden from view and trigger-ready in your own backyard.

Anonymous, 2010-10-01 04:58:43

Some of my best friends are half-naked party boys.

Anonymous, 2010-12-25 12:03:44

The deaths of these young men makes me sick to my stomach. I’ve been on the receiving end of anti-gay sentiment and believe me, it affects a person’s whole life. I’ve been in a position where I wanted to end my life just because of how I had been made to feel, due to my sexual orientation. Does human life in general mean so little to so few? What are parents teaching their children? There are heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, etc. They have been around since the beginning of man. No one wakes up and decides that they want to be one or the other, nor can someone be made to be one or the other. It’s the 21st century. Wake up and smell the reality.

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GLBT equality groups responded with outrage to the suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, citing not only Clementi’s suicide, but those of several others teens who killed themselves after enduring anti-gay harassment at school.

GLBT equality groups responded with outrage to the suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, citing not only Clementi’s suicide, but those of several others teens who killed themselves after enduring anti-gay harassment at school.

GLBT equality groups responded with outrage to the suicide of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi, 18, citing not only Clementi’s suicide, but those of several others teens who killed themselves after enduring anti-gay harassment at school.